Jaco leads the way
13 Jun 2006
Jaco van der Westhuyzen has the Springbok No 10 jersey for the moment. He has the power to make it his own.
Injury to Andre Pretorius, an out of favour Meyer Bosman and a still recovering Butch James has handed Van der Westhuyzen a crucial opportunity to make cement his place at pivot.
A rather scratchy display against the World XV in Johannesburg was followed by a better but far from complete performance in the first Test against Scotland.
Van der Westhuyzen has come in for much criticism from media and public alike, but Bok management are backing the speedy back to at least take them through the extended Tri-Nations.
At that stage Pretorius will be back from injury and ready to win the jersey back. The next few matches are crucial to Van der Westhuyzen’s longevity at flyhalf in the green and gold.
“Jaco is our flyhalf and we need to give him time to settle there,” Bok assistant coach Allister Coetzee told keo.co.za. “We cannot afford to chop and change and besides we believe he has what it takes.”
Many critics, however, disagree saying he needs space to work his magic and is better suited to fullback – a position he excelled for the Bulls in the latter stages of the Super 14.
Van der Westhuyzen wants to be the Bok No 10 and Jake White feels he is ideally suited to his plans leading up to and including the 2007 World Cup.
Said White: “One of the frustrations I’ve had is that Jaco hasn’t played flyhalf in a (Super 14) franchise again. And that re-affirms what I have said in the past. There is no long term planning on how we are going to develop. Everyone agrees that we don’t have a settled flyhalf yet no-one ever keeps a settled flyhalf.”
White will thus keep Van der Westhuyzen and hopefully he can ignite the Bok backs in the same way he did in 2004’s Tri-Nations-winning campaign.
By Andrew Hollely
164 Comments
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13 Jun 2006, 14:46 pm
Answer this how often did Jaco get ball off a first phase, or quick second phase, to show his attack, very very seldom. He hardly saw the ball on Saturday to do anything with it. All attack was based on mauling and pick and drive. Whenever Jaco got the ball it was to clear from his own half. So don’t give me all this ****.
I’d love to see Jaco play in Aus, i love their style of play. Best rugby to watch in the world. Fast paced, through the hands rugby, with runner coming at pace and from all angles. You put our forwards where theirs are weak, and their backline and they’d be unstoppable and awesome to watch.
Watch them this year, their forwards have beefed up, gonna be hard to beat this year.
13 Jun 2006, 14:51 pm
mike H, agree their backline skills are supreme, even if you watched some of the tries they worked against the poms, can create from nothing.
13 Jun 2006, 14:53 pm
Mike H,
was a bit ominous the way the aussies still dominated even though they didn’t realy convince up front. their scrums and lineouts were slightly dubious to say the least. feel that we should really control the up fron with our pack.
13 Jun 2006, 14:54 pm
the reason jaco gets so little ball is to protect him. jake knows our forwards are our strengh and that jaco will only screw up good ball anyway.
13 Jun 2006, 15:26 pm
jaco to kiss my noemfie…
13 Jun 2006, 15:26 pm
bye bye, no more jaco please…
13 Jun 2006, 16:08 pm
let him grow if you want but make sure he practices not to run across the field!! he leaves no space for the 12 and 13, and sometimes the 11 and 14 receives the ball to close too touch line – all starts with the no 10 angle run.
would have loved to see MB growing into 10 for WC next year, with JVDW at 15. problem is will his kicking be the same as PM? nope, thus percy will be in there all the way!
13 Jun 2006, 16:28 pm
There is nothing exciting on this site tonight/day.
Suppose Back to the Togo game, boring!
13 Jun 2006, 16:59 pm
Last word on Jaco- he’s useless…but all we have
13 Jun 2006, 17:21 pm
He can do it, whats more important for south africa is guaranteeing the strength of the pack and the men closest to the scrum the 1st centre and wings, if Jaco gets go forward ball and the skills of Jean and Bryan on other side he cant look bad, he can only do well. We’ve never created Dan Carters in this country but if we give Jaco the options and the ability to trust in the competence of his pack and the men outside of him, he can look very dangerous. goodluck to Jaco, Hoipefully he’ll do well for us.
13 Jun 2006, 17:22 pm
oh ya, any considerd swopping Jaco and Percy?? On sta Percy should he’s still got it in terms of being an attacking option.
13 Jun 2006, 19:39 pm
To assess whether or not he is a good No 10, Jaco needs a faster service from his scrumhalf, he isn’t Larkham nor Carter who can create something out of the blue, thus speed in service is imparative
January is slower and one side limited, FdP is his own man and likes to dictate the game like Joost used to do, so Jaco’s game will suffer inadvertently, he seemed tonice a guy
14 Jun 2006, 14:21 pm
Pretorius > Butch > Jaco.
14 Jun 2006, 16:15 pm
Jaco is NOT a world-class flyhalf, never has been, never will be – he is has very average kicking skills, zero drop-kicking ability, butterfingers and worst of all HE RUNS ACROSS.
Nightmare!
Andre Pretorious is no great shakes but at least he is a flyhalf.
John Cowper – Detroit
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